After reading Grant Jones' post, 300 Spartans versus 10,000 Academics, I was inspired to watched the movie 300 again, and I was struck by one scene that reminded me of my fellow Infidel Warriors — the writers and readers and commmenters on the IBA. It was a scene near the beginning of the movie.
A messenger from the Persian Empire said to the Spartan King Leonidas, something like this: "All the Great Xerxes (the Persian King) requires is a token of Sparta's submission."
King Leonidas replies, "Submission... That's a bit of a problem."
That's one thing none of us here can abide. Some people may be able to tolerate submission. But not us.
In looking for clues to just how much of the movie was meant to parallel the current Jihadists versus Infidels situation, I found an interesting tidbit from Answers.com:
Since its opening, 300 has attracted controversy over its portrayal of people of the Persian Empire. Various critics, historians, journalists, and officials of the Iranian government including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have denounced the film. As in the graphic novel, the Persians are depicted as a monstrous, barbaric and demonic horde...historian Touraj Daryaee, associate professor of Ancient History at California State University, Fullerton, also expressed concerns that ‘“300” is "just another of the propagandistic tools...to get the American people ready to endorse another Shock and Awe operation."
The film's portrayal of ancient Persians sparked a particularly strong reaction in Iran. Azadeh Moaveni of Time reports that Tehranis were "outraged" following the film's release. Moaveni identifies two factors which may have contributed to the intense reaction: its release on the eve of Norouz, the Persian New Year, and a common Iranian view of the Achaemenid Empire as "a particularly noble page in their history."
Various Iranian officials, including the president of Iran's Art Affairs Advisory, Javad Shamqadri, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham and four Iranian Members of Parliament condemned the film. The Iranian Academy of the Arts submitted a formal complaint against the movie to UNESCO, labeling it an attack on the historical identity of Iran. The Iranian mission to the U.N. protested the film in a press release, and the Iranian embassies protested its screening in France, Thailand, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
Something about that made me glad. A large part of the current war is about what the majority of people in democratic countries THINK. And the fact that so many Iranian leaders disliked the movie made me like it even more.
6 comments:
Thanks! With all their American/Western hating films bombing, Hollywood should remember "300's" half a $Billion box office.
Yes, absolutely. I'd like to see movies that are even more explicit. Something like Islam: What the West Needs to Know turned into a movie.
Or the documentary, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, turned into a full-length feature film. There's money to be made here, Hollywood.
Citzen Warrior,
Let's write it.
:)
Pastorius, my first thought was, "I don't know anything about writing a movie script."
My second thought was, "On the other had, apparently neither do most script writers."
I think maybe it should take place in Europe, say 20 years in the future. Muslims have gained considerable political power and a much larger voting block. Laws have begun to change. Freedoms are disappearing.
What do you think?
I like the idea. Thing is, if you base it in Europe, you can appeal to people's romance about Europe and show how it is being destroyed at the same time.
Heh, even Europeans seem to have a romantic notion about their own terra.
Americans do not have much in the way of a romance about their own country. That's interesting, isn't it?
By the way, here are some good War on Islam movies (even if they weren't meant that way):
Reign of Fire
300
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
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